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View Of Forest Insects Changing From Pests To Partners

Date:

October 31, 2001

Source:

Oregon State University

Summary:

The massive insect epidemics that have plagued Pacific Northwest forests in recent years are mostly a reflection of poor forest health conditions, overcrowding, overuse of chemicals, fire suppression and introduction of monocultures or non-native species, a new report concludes.

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CORVALLIS –- The massive insect epidemics that have plagued Pacific Northwest forests in recent years are mostly a reflection of poor forest health conditions, overcrowding, overuse of chemicals, fire suppression and introduction of monocultures or non-native species, a new report concludes.

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Beyond that, these insect attacks are actually nature's mechanism to help restore forest health on a long-term basis and in many cases should be allowed to run their course, according to Oregon State University scientists in a new study published this week in the journal Conservation Biology In Practice.

Native insects work to thin trees, control crowding, reduce stress and lessen competition for water and nutrients, the researchers found. Some levels of insect herbivory, or plant-eating, may even be good for trees and forests, and in the long run produce as much or more tree growth.

"There is now evidence that in many cases forests are more healthy after an insect outbreak," said Tim Schowalter, an OSU professor of entomology. "The traditional view still is that forest insects are destructive, but we need a revolution in this way of thinking. The fact is we will never resolve our problems with catastrophic fires or insect epidemics until we restore forest health, and in this battle insects may well be our ally, not our enemy."

Historically, Schowalter said, destructive forest insects such as the mountain pine beetle or tussock moth were native to Pacific Northwest forests and served an essential role in keeping them healthy. When trees became too crowded the insects would eliminate weaker trees and reduce competition. But since the beetles' reproductive pheromones only carried effectively about 15-20 feet, naturally open stands of mature pines were protected against widespread outbreaks.

In these same forests today, fire suppression has allowed shade-tolerant, fire-intolerant species to crowd the understory, create an entire forest stressed for water and nutrients, and beetles can skip from one weak tree to another across entire stands. But the solution in cases such as this, Schowalter said, is to address the fundamental issue of overcrowding through forest thinning, controlled fire and insect attack, allowing the pine beetles to actually help in the long-term process of restoring forest health.

It now appears that insects, which are the most abundant and diverse animals on Earth, are anything but destructive pests. Rather, they are major architects of the plant world in both structure and function, and in natural balance help to maintain healthy and productive forest ecosystems.

According to the new report, insects can influence their environment in five key ways:

· Insects are herbivores that eat plants, influencing where they can grow. Sometimes they kill trees and other plants to reduce competition, and many times feed on trees without killing them in ways that actually improve the health and long-term growth of trees and forests.

· Insects are a key food source for vertebrates and other animals, and play a major role in the food chain.

· Insect are dispersal agents to carry seeds, fungal spores, and even other invertebrates from one place to another.

· Insects are pollinators, and in this role also help control the movement of plant species.

Through this multiplicity of roles, forest insects can help to control plant succession, dictate which plants will be allowed to grow or thrive in particular areas, and generally invigorate plant communities, the report said. Studies suggest herbivory levels as high as 40-50 percent make little or no difference to plant growth and survival, and this type of moderate herbivory clearly should not be "fought" with costly controls. Wood production in western U.S. pine forests reached or exceeded pre-attack levels 10-15 years following mountain pine beetle outbreaks, research has shown, and the more an individual Douglas-fir tree is defoliated by the tussock moth, the more it compensates afterwards with increased growth, given sufficient resources. The herbivory may alleviate drought stress by reducing a tree's demand for water, and also encourage more competitive interactions between plant species that ultimately work to the benefit of the tree.

Insects may be so important to soil fertility that they may be a better barometer of forest ecosystem health than the larger trees or animals which live there, researchers say. In natural forest communities there are more than 200 species of arthropods and more than 200,000 individuals in a square meter of soil, and the numbers of these arthropods can tell more than chemical tests about soil concerns such as compaction and nutrient cycling. A study by another OSU researcher showed residual impacts on soil invertebrate populations from a site that had been clearcut and slash burned 40 years earlier.

In their natural role, insects are usually helpful to the forest and rarely cause large epidemics.

"When you have a highly destructive insect epidemic, what that really should be telling us is not that we have an insect problem, but that we have a forest health problem," Schowalter said. "It's monocultures and fire suppression that cause insects to become nuisances. The pests that plague us are all too often of our own making."

As these systems become more fully understood, Schowalter said, it should be possible to work with insects, rather than against them, to produce new solutions to maximize the yield of forest commodities while achieving conservation goals and healthier ecosystems.

"It's really simple on one level," Schowalter said. "We have to pay more than lip service to the balance of nature."

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Oregon State University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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